


Adam Windsor, 1887

by adadshi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 19th Century, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Victorian, Animal Death, Anxiety, Child Death, Chimney Sweeps, Climbing Boy Keith, England (Country), Gen, Genetic Disorders & Abnormalities, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Japanese Shiro (Voltron), Kid Keith (Voltron), M/M, Minor Canonical Character(s), Minor Character(s), Orphan Keith (Voltron), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, References to Illness, Royalty, Taxidermy, Victorian Attitudes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:02:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23430646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adadshi/pseuds/adadshi
Summary: The year was 1887. It was the Golden Jubilee year of Queen Victoria. The current war was waging. Mr Adam Windsor, 56th in line to the throne, was mourning. Mr Takashi Shirogane was ill. Keith the climbing boy had given up on the idea of having a family.Later on, Adam would look back and remember 1887 as the longest year of his life.
Relationships: Adam & Keith (Voltron), Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 25





	Adam Windsor, 1887

**Author's Note:**

> TW: animal death, illness, taxidermy process, child labour.
> 
> I did a lot of research for this fic but it in't perfect! Don't look too deeply into chimney sweep apprenticeship laws... I had to disregard a couple of things. A lot of the stuff referenced in here like child labour aren't things I agree with or advocate, sadly they were just practices of the time. I hope you enjoy reading! 
> 
> Twitter: @adadshi

Adam woke up on the morning of March 23rd, 1887, with a heavy feeling in his chest. He sat up in bed and looked around the chamber. The curtains were tightly shut, the fireplace was needing lit- _No_ , he corrected himself, _today the chimney will be cleaned, don't light it_. Everything was as it should be. So why did it feel like something was amiss? With a frown, he turned to his right. 

"Shiro, I-" He felt his heart stop.

Shiro's side of the bed was empty. The sheets were tangled and, when Adam felt them, there was still a lingering warmth. He curled his fingers into them, and his frown deepened. That man! One day Shiro would be the death of him. 

Adam found him on the landing. He was still in his white nightshirt. It looked so big on him like he was wearing clothes passed down from an older brother. Shiro was leaning over with his head against his knees, his feet on the first step. The shirt pressed against his back, showing his jutting spine. Adam shivered.

He sat down beside him and manoeuvred Shiro's arm over his shoulder. In this state, he reminded him of a rag doll. When Adam brought him to a stand, Shiro's knees buckled, and he fell against his chest. 

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He mumbled. The apologies continued until he was back in bed. The white pillows framed his head like a halo. Adam patted his arm. 

"Shush, it's alright." He looked to the clock on the wall, "The climbing boy will be here soon, I have to get ready. Will you help me?"

Shiro liked to be involved with everything, Adam knew this. He slid on a black shirt and let him do up the buttons. His shaking fingers made it a long, tedious process, but the look of absolute concentration in his eyes was endearing. Adam always flushed when Shiro buttoned his trousers, but it was something he insisted upon. Before sliding the gloves onto his hands, Shiro felt the smooth skin of his palms and inspected his trimmed fingernails. Adam never understood his fascination and hurried him to pull on the gloves. The cravat was too difficult for Shiro, it was of the only parts of the outfit that Adam put on himself.

Adam stood back and let Shiro look him over.

"You look like a shadow." He said sadly. Adam fixed his cuffs absentmindedly. He knew Shiro disapproved of the mourning etiquette. He went to the dressing table and pulled open a little wooden drawer. Inside was his silver locket, his prized possession. He clipped it onto his neck and hid the pendant beneath his shirt, close to his heart.

Adam looked at his reflection. When was the last time he looked into this mirror and saw himself without bags under his eyes? His hair was getting so long, who would trim it? He looked back at Shiro, his greatest friend in this world, and knew that he could never leave him. Especially not when he was so sick. That was how things were for them. Adam would figure it out somehow.

"Adam," Shiro called out. He sat up slightly, and Adam rushed to his side.

"Don't move so quickly or you'll become lightheaded." He muttered. Shiro rolled his eyes and showed Adam his forgotten silver spectacles.

"I can't believe you almost left them."

Shiro carefully pushed the wireframe spectacles onto his nose and hooked the legs around his ears. He gave Adam's cheek a soft pat and then lowered himself back onto the bed. He shut his eyes.

Adam smiled, took the cold warming-pan from beneath the sheets and the chamberpot from the bedside table, and went downstairs. He forgot to close the door behind him.

He had time to kill before the climbing boy arrived, so Adam sat himself down in his study. He had his latest project in front of him: a little dead mouse Shiro found outside on one of his walks. It was a poor deformed thing, with one glassy eye on the centre of its forehead. Adam wanted to preserve the curiosity forever.

He took a thin knife from his kit and started to skin the creature. He was well trained in the art of taxidermy, but he always found this first step made him upset. He was gentle with the mouse, he handled all of his projects with the greatest care, and made sure not to rupture its intestines. They were tiny but could make a huge mess.

When the animal was completely skinned, Adam scooped up the insides on one of his gloved hands and pushed past his completed taxidermy projects to the window. He threw the pinkish guts outside and watched as birds swooped down to peck at them. The cycle of life was a strange thing. He tried not to think about it too often.

Adam reminded himself to later change into a new pair of gloves and started to work on the skeleton for his mouse. He took some silver wire and started to bend it into the position he wanted. He kept the shape simple, knowing the pose would be reinforced when he stuffed the animal. He curled the wire into a semi-circle and then knotted smaller strips of wire to it. These would give structure to the little limbs.

Just as Adam started to think about replacing the eye, he heard a knock on the front door. His head snapped to the grandfather clock, and he cursed quietly. It was nine o'clock- the climbing boy was here. He left his project and rushed to the front door.

"Adam." He heard Shiro call from upstairs, "There's someone at the door."

"I know, I know." He called back. The rapping on the door continued. Adam frowned. No one had any patience anymore.

He muttered to himself as he unlocked the door. As he pulled it open, he remembered his black gloves would smell of death and hid them behind his back.

"Mr Windsor?"

Adam looked at the young boy on his doorstep. He couldn't have been more than eight years old. He wore a floppy brown hat that kept on slipping over his eyes. Every few seconds the boy had to push it back up with his mucky hands. His feet were black. He carried a brush, a scrape and an empty brown sack. He looked behind Adam to the house interior.

"Yes, come inside." Adam held the door open for him. The boy wiped his feet on the doorstep, leaving a dark stain, "Keith, is it?" 

“Uh-huh. Yes, sir.” The boy said. He took off his hat and looked around the parlour, his eyes as wide as saucers. Adam smiled. He doubted the boy had ever been in a manor before.

A few weeks prior, Adam wrote to his cousin in London asking for names of the best chimney cleaning companies. Matthew wrote back quickly, telling him not to worry and that he would sort everything out. _Only the best for my favourite cousin_ , he wrote, _I'll arrange something for you, leave it to me. Remember you're always welcome here in London. That big manor must be so lonely_.

Adam promised that he'd visit soon and expressed thanks for his help. He hoped this boy was as good as Matthew said. He was awfully skinny.

"It's good for climbing." The boy said, almost as if he read Adam's mind, "I'm the best because I'm the smallest." 

Adam nodded. "That makes sense." 

He led the boy to the first chimney needing cleaning. It was best to work from the bottom up, back to front, so they started in the kitchen. From his sack, Keith brought out a thick square of white fabric. He unfolded it until it was the size of a rug and put it on the floor in front of the chimney. 

"Don't want the soot getting on the tiles," Keith explained. Adam watched as the boy got onto his knees and peered up the chimney. He murmured to himself for a few moments, felt the bricks with his hands, then sat back. He took off his hat, rolled up his sleeves, tucked his equipment under his arms, and began to scale the chimney. 

Adam watched, bewildered. He couldn't imagine ever going up a chimney. He thought of all the soot and spiderwebs. He ducked down and yelled, "How long will you be with this one?"

"About an hour." The boy grunted, "You don't need to stay. I'm fine myself."

"Right. Move on when you're finished."

"Yes, sir."

Adam listened to the boy wriggle around in the chimney for a few moments before he left the kitchen. He had things to do.

He wasn't sure if it was intentional, but it seemed like the climbing boy was following him around the manor. When Adam thought he was alone in the library, he heard a thump from the chimney and almost jumped out of his skin.

Keith was lying at the foot of the chimney, covered in black soot. He was on his back. For a moment, Adam's heart stopped. _The boy was dead_. Then Keith reached out a hand and pointed to the coat of arms engraved onto the golden fireplace frame.

"Hey, what does that mean?"

"It represents the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha." Adam replied, "My great aunt Victoria owns this manor."

"Queen Victoria?" He squeaked.

"Back to work, please."

"Yes, your royal highness."

Adam chuckled. That wasn't even the right title! He was only a minor royal but a royal nonetheless. London civilians still recognised him when we visited. Keith scurried back up the chimney. Adam heard him cough now and then and whistle a jolly tune. The company wasn't bad.

At four o'clock Adam started to prepare dinner. He'd grown up in a house with help, but he was hesitant to have staff now. He valued his privacy. When he first moved into the manor, he went straight to the library to find a cookbook. He still wasn't as good as the cooks from his childhood, but he was getting there.

He made sure to make enough mutton stew for three. Keith had lit the fire after cleaning the kitchen chimney. He took a few moments to sit with his eyes closed and feel the warmth on his face. It was heavenly. But then Shiro was calling on him again and his fast-paced life started back up.

When the mutton was stewed to perfection, Adam went to go find Keith. He searched every room on the bottom of the manor. The rooms with the roaring fire meant that Keith had already cleaned the chimney. He'd made quick work of it- almost every room was pleasant and warm. Adam was very pleased with cousin Matthew's recommendation.

He found Keith standing in the doorway of the study. He was staring at the taxidermy with a look of absolute horror.

"Everything alright?"

Keith didn't reply immediately. His eyes darted from animal to animal before his gaze settled on the wolf. It was a lovely creature, sadly a victim to Matthew's brand new motor car. He donated the carcass to Adam. It always broke his heart when he first saw his projects- so lifeless, so limp, so dead- but he loved to give them new life. To make them beautiful again. That's what he did with the wolf. It sat tall and proud in the display cabinet.

"There's... dead stuff," Keith whispered.

"Yes, my hobby is taxidermy. Haven't you ever seen some before? Perhaps in a museum?"

Keith shook his head and took a step back into the hallway. "Is there a chimney in there?"

Adam sympathised with the look of terror in his eyes and decided to lie. "No, there isn't. Go into the kitchen, I've made stew."

Adam and Keith had dinner together in the kitchen. Adam never bothered to eat in the dining room, not when he ate alone more often than not. Later on, he would bring Shiro his serving in bed.

Adam watched Keith wolf down his dinner from across the table. He passed him a handkerchief and pointed to the side of his mouth. Keith stuck his tongue out and licked the missed crumb of mutton. None went to waste.

"Does your master not feed you well?"

Keith shook his head. "If we eat too much we won't fit in the flues. We get scraps now and then."

"Do you enjoy being a climbing boy?"

He bit his cracked bottom lip and tilted his head one way. Shiro did the same when he was deep in thought. "I can't complain. I could've been much worse off. I spent years waiting for a nice family to come to the orphanage and make me their son, but instead, the master came. He gave me this opportunity. It's much better to make your own way in the world than to wait for some hopeless dream to come true."

Adam thought it was very brave for such a young boy to take on his responsibility. But still, he was only a child. He couldn't imagine any of his younger brothers climbing up a chimney.

Keith coughed loudly into his elbow and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Adam had noticed he coughed quite frequently.

"Have you seen a doctor about that cough?"

"Never seen a doctor about anything." Keith's eyes flickered to the ceiling and he said, "Your royal highness-"

"Mr Windsor is fine."

"Mr Windsor, is there someone upstairs?"

He couldn't help to smile when he thought of Shiro. "Yes, Mr Shirogane lives here, too. We're close friends."

Keith put his elbows on the table and Adam had to bite his tongue to stop from scolding him. This climbing boy was good company, he didn't want to scare him off.

"He's sick, though. Terribly ill. He stays in his chamber mostly and I take care of him."

"Should I clean the chimney in his chamber or should I leave it be? I wouldn't want to disturb him."

"No, it's alright. Mr Shirogane would find you very interesting, Keith. In fact- let's go visit him now.”

He noticed Keith was very wary as he moved about the manor. He didn't touch anything, not even the stair rail. It was like he thought his touch would ruin the luxury of it all. Adam's heart softened. Poor child.

Adam made him stand outside the chamber and went in alone to make sure Shiro was decent. He looked paler than usual.

"I'm so cold." He shivered. He tried to smile, but it looked pitiful to Adam.

"Keith, come in, please."

In came tiny Keith with his chimney cleaning kit. He waved at Shiro and Shiro waved back.

"Mr Shirogane."

"Keith, is it?"

"Yes, that's right."

Adam looked to Shiro and found him smiling his biggest smile in weeks. He brought a stool to the side of the bed and motioned for Keith to take a seat. "I'll go get your dinner, Shiro."

When he came back, mutton stew in hand, he saw Shiro and Keith having a chinwag like old friends. He stood in the doorframe for a few moments, watching with a look of fondness. They spoke about Keith's work and how hopefully he would go on to have his own chimney cleaning company. Shiro told Keith about his childhood in Japan, where houses have no chimneys. Keith remarked that he'd like to travel abroad someday.

"I won't make it as far as Japan, but maybe I'll go to France or Germany." He said.

"Yes, it is expensive to travel," Shiro said. He spotted Adam standing in the doorway and smiled brightly, "Adam here has no trouble with expenses. Tell him all the places you've been."

Adam placed the stew in his lap and pulled another stool over to the bed. As he listed the many countries he'd visited, he watched Keith's look of excitement grow.

"America?" Keith gasped, "How'd you get there?"

"On a ship. I wouldn't recommend it to you, Keith. It made me terribly sick. We docked in the east, and then I had to travel to the west to visit my family there. It was hundreds of miles! But that was an exciting experience. The land is new and uncharted: it's all fields and sand and sky."

"You saw cowboys, didn't you?"

"Oh, yes. I'm sure I have photographs somewhere."

"I should get started with the chimney," Keith muttered. He was looking at the clock on the wall, "The master wants me back before ten o'clock."

Keith got started with the chimney, and Shiro insisted he talked them through the process. Adam helped him to sit on the floor at the foot of the fireplace where they listened to Keith.

"Sometimes," He said with a grunt, "if there's another boy with me, he'll light the fire to make me move faster." A clump of soot fell, and Keith coughed. It was a raspy cough, a painful one.

"Have you ever got stuck?" Shiro asked.

"Not me, no, but this boy- William Moles- he did. His knees got too close to his chest, and he couldn't move. He was wedged in there. Before he could be rescued, a big layer of soot fell onto him. He suffocated. Poor William, he was only six or seven years old."

Adam shivered. What a horrible death. "Does that happen often?"

"No, not often. We're more likely to scrape our elbows or knees. For thin flues, we have to go in the buff. There's no room for clothes, you see. In those cases, our entire body gets scraped. It stings for ages afterwards."

Keith wriggled out of the chimney sometime later. He wiped his feet against the white sheet and started to collect the soot in his sack. Adam quickly lit the fire and watched Shiro shut his eyes and sigh blissfully.

"Much better." He said.

"I should get going." Keith put on his hat. Adam looked outside, and the sky was pitch-black. He couldn't see a thing.

"Will your master be coming to take you home?"

"No, I'm walking."

"I don't know how to feel about that..." No, Adam knew. There was no way he was letting a child walk miles and miles back to London at this time of night. That would be cruel.

"Don't go, Keith." Shiro, now with his eyes open, said, "Adam can write to your master and even pay a little bit more to make up for the inconvenience. And he'll get a chamber prepared for you, too."

Adam nodded. He could do that, yes. It would take a while to clean Keith up and decide how much extra to pay his master, but it made sense for him to stay overnight. Cleaning every chimney in the manor would take a few days. It would cause too much hassle to have Keith walk back and forth.

"Is that alright, Mr Windsor?"

Adam nodded. "Yes. Of course. I'll make some supper. You two stay here."

"Can we look at the America trip album?" Shiro asked, voice full of hope.

"Go ahead. You know where it is."

He left the chamber, closing the door behind him. As he trotted down the stairs, he remembered he still hadn't changed his gloves. He brought them to his nose- they still smelled of mouse insides. Adam sighed and continued to the kitchen. He'd remember to change them later.


End file.
